Chapter 8 - Photographic Perils

Kuro’s Village - Dawn

The rain arrived mercifully along with the sun, thankfully washing out the smell from the night before.

However, when Simon awoke and exited the small house Kuro had temporarily granted him, it shocked him to see nearly all the villagers running around naked in the rain. Not in celebration, but in a hysterical frenzy to rid their bodies of the stench from the night before.

Simon shook his head slightly before weaving his way through the naked masses, eventually arriving at Kuro’s house. He knocked on the familiar-looking door twice before entering unannounced, as he had several times before. However, the sight that awaited him would scar him forever.

Inside, Kuro had been frantically washing his body with some sort of sponge. The image of an elderly naked man dutifully scrubbing the area beneath his skin flaps became firmly etched deeply in his unfortunately photographic memory.

Simon dejectedly collapsed on the front steps and quietly hung his head, trying to think of anything to get that haunting image out of his mind. Fortunately or unfortunately, an opportunity soon presented itself.

“Simon?” A clear voice pulled him from his self-imposed isolation. The bell-like sound of Kayae’s voice emanated in front of him. He raised his head with a smile, planning to address the small girl in the same fatherly manner he usually tried to speak with her in.

Unfortunately, his smile twisted into a frown. In front of him, Kayae was standing naked in the rain while attempting to strike a somewhat risqué pose, despite the bright blush present on her cheeks.

“A-aren’t you going to wash too? I-I’ll wash your back…” Her bell-like voice reduced itself to a barely audible whisper as she spoke.

While Simon’s original estimation of the girl’s age to be between 12 and 14 had been nearly 3 years off the truth, it made little difference in the grand scheme of things. Kayae’s actual age was 15, according to Kuro’s memory.

Apparently, her small stature resulted from chronic malnutrition through her early years, a fate seemingly ubiquitous among the young in the village. It had negatively affected her growth and the other children.

Regardless of that fact, Simon wasn’t an idiot. He knew exactly what she was trying to do after observing her behavior during their various past encounters, much to his dismay.

Deciding the best course of action presently would be to dodge the question and play the fool, Simon quietly nodded his head before staring intently at the wound across the girl’s ribs.

“I see you’ve been keeping it clean. Good. Now go dry yourself off and put some clothes on before it gets infected.”

Kayae’s rosy cheeks puffed out after having her plans foiled by his overly protective fatherly attitude and stormed off in a huff towards her house.

Come back in thirty or forty years. Simon shook his head at the thought.

“Simon? You can come in now.”

Simon stood up, but stopped before opening the door. “Please tell me you are at least wearing clothes now.”

“That’s yer own damn fault for barging in here without permission!” Kuro’s angry voice echoed from behind the door, causing Simon to smile softly as he opened the door.

Kuro’s House - Dawn

“Now then, what’s on yer mind?” the Elder said while passing over a wooden teacup.

“Multiple things.” Simon replied, joining the Elder on the packed earth.

“Oh?”

“Foremost, the bandit attacks. Two attacks in a week seems…odd.” Simon said, taking a sip.

Kuro set his cup down on the floor before speaking, “Aye, it is. In all honesty, before this week, bandits have only attacked us seven times since my grandfather founded this village. I guess in that regard, we were fortunate.”

Simon’s eyebrow tilted upwards as he drank from the cup. “How so?”

Kuro stroked his chin. “As you already know, the area that we beastmen were relocated to was…less than hospitable. The area they moved us to wasn’t designated as a buffer zone or prone to bandit attacks. Instead, the area was prone to monster attacks from the forest.”

“But as far as I’m aware, monsters haven’t attacked this village in a long time.”

“Aye, they haven’t. During my grandfather’s generation, he led a group of several tribesmen into the forest. They massacred the local monster population early on. While completely exterminating them wasn’t a feasible option, thinning out their numbers was. So, they cut the forest back during his time.”

Simon nodded his head in understanding. “So, the monsters don’t roam far out of the forest, and your grandfather had the forest cut back from the village? How far away is this forest, anyway?”

Kuro stroked his chin thoughtfully, “Eh, a day by horse normally, maybe half a day if you switched out horses. Never really had a reason to measure out the distance, though.”

“That’s farther than I was expecting.”

“Aye, it used to be closer back when the village was founded. Supposedly, it was around half that distance before we cut it back.”

Simon raised an eyebrow. “That’s a lot of trees.”

The Elder nodded, “Indeed. The village used to produce timber during my grandfather’s generation. It was only after my father took over that we swapped to farming.”

“Why?”

Kuro’s eyes darkened. “… The deeper we pressed into the forest, the stronger the monsters became. At first, we rarely lost anyone, but in the end… We lost too many. The risks weren’t worth it. After the last of my grandfather’s generation died, we picked up the village and moved back to our original location.”

“Did the village move with the logging operation?”

“At first, no, that was something my father actually came up with when he was young. Trips back and forth from the treeline became problematic. We couldn’t exactly move the forest, so my father recommended moving the village closer.”

Simon nodded. “Well, that explains the lack of monsters. What about the bandits?”

Kuro shook his head while pouring himself another cup of tea and doing the same for Simon. “I don’t know. Perhaps the bandits were forced further south because of the plague or…” Kuro’s voice trailed off as he stared into the teacup in his hand.

“Or the other villages are already gone?”

Kuro let out a long sigh. “Aye. That appears to be the case. At least after you mentioned that, the plague probably came from the capital.”

Simon crossed his arms while closing his eyes before continuing to speak. “Alright, that covers the bandits. Onto the next matter.”

“And that is?”

“Food. We captured seven horses last night. Is it correct to assume they’ll be butchered for food to feed the village?”

Kuro’s ears shot up at the outrageous suggestion, “W-What? Are ye crazy!? Each of them horses is worth enough gold to feed the entire village for a month!”

Simon shook his head. “How are you going to sell them? Where are you going to sell them?”

Kuro’s expression shifted once again, agitation clearly showing in this voice, “What do you mean?”

Simon slowly set his now empty wooden cup onto the floor and stared directly at Kuro. “Kuro, who would buy horses obtained during a bandit raid and sold by beastmen that aren’t supposed to have any means to defend themselves from such attacks? Not only that, but, even if you could sell them, who would you sell them to? Your people need food. Now. Not later.”

Kuro’s ears fell flat against his head, and he leaned back across the floor as the realization hit him like a ton of bricks. “Divines be damned!” He suddenly shot up in a rage, tossing the teacup through the open window and hitting something.

“Owww.”

Kuro pivoted his attention towards the window, while Simon simply shook his head.

Busted.

Simon had been aware of Kayae’s presence since she arrived, but had already decided to ignore her.

“Kayae! Get yer ass in here! What the hell are you doin snoopin around by the window?!”

Kayae was currently sitting across from the two men while receiving a one-sided verbal lashing. “Simon! Aren’t ye going to say anything to her?!” Kuro suddenly turned his attention to Simon, who had remained silent while sipping his tea.

“Kuro.” Simon opened his eyes while staring at the elderly man. “I’m not her father.”

Silence filled the room for a moment as tears welled up for the first time in Kayae’s eyes. The tiny figure quickly shot up and ran out the door, slamming it loudly on her way out.

“Simon.” Kuro turned towards Simon with stern eyes, “I know I told you to say something, but that was by far the worst possible thing you could have said.”

Simon closed his eyes and took a sip of tea before replying, “I know.”

Simon’s casual demeanor and response caused the elderly man to fly into a fit of rage. “You knew that, and yet you said it, anyway? Simon, you know I and the villagers love you like one of our own, but you can be a real nasty bastard! You know that?!”

“I do. But it needed to be said.”

Kuro lets out an exasperated sigh before standing up to retrieve a flask from a nearby cupboard and drinks deeply, “Aye. I know that, even so, you could have let her enjoy it for a bit longer. That poor girl never knew who her father was, and her mother disappeared one night four months ago after leaving a note promising that she would be back in a month with food. She’s got no one left.”

Simon opened his eyes, staring into the empty teacup. “Kuro.” The elderly man turns towards him while emitting a sigh and hands over the flask. Simon gave the liquid a quick sniff before taking a short swig from the flask with a raised eyebrow. “Potato Vodka?”

“Aye. After all, potatoes are the only damn thing we can grow around here, or well, used to grow before this damnable plague. We tried making something out of the barley, but… that didn’t turn out well. So anyway, where were we?”

“Butchering horses.”

“Ah, right. Fine. I’ll give the order later. First, however, you’ll have to kill um. I mean nothing by it, but none of the villagers will kill those horses.”

Simon tilts his eyebrow up at that statement. “Why?”

Kuro chuckles lightly before taking a swig from the flask, “Aye, I guess you wouldn’t know, not being from around here and all. Horses are the symbol of the patron deity most of the villagers worship, myself included. While eating one isn’t a sin, killing one is.”

“I see. Does this Patron deity have a name?”

“Aye, she does. Her name is Pegasus.”

Simon’s eyes widened slightly at the name. “She wouldn’t be a white-winged horse, would she?”

Kuro nods his head, “Aye, she would be. How’d you know?”

“Just a guess,” Simon replied after gently placing the wooden cup on the floor.

Kuro’s ears twitched slightly as the air around Simon slowly chilled.

Magic? He thought to himself for dismissing the notion after being unable to see his breath.

Simon let out a soft sigh before speaking in a tired, matter-of-fact tone. “Seven horses will not be enough to feed the village, Kuro. We’ll likely have to resort to more extreme measures to ensure the village’s survival. The sooner, the better.”

“More extreme measures?”

“More specifically, the bandits themselves.”

Kuro briefly lets go of the flask, barely catching it before it hits the floor, and quickly stands up.

The elderly man quickly stuck his head out of the window and looked around before latching it shut tightly, while Simon sits motionless, seemingly unsurprised by his reaction. “That’s not something that’s even an option,” Kuro said sternly after sitting down on the floor with his arms crossed.

“But it is,” Simon replied coldly, with even sterner-looking eyes than Kuro mustered.

“N-No, it’s not. Even if we were starving, more so than we are now, we wouldn’t resort to that.”

Simon shakes his head at the statement, “Kuro, look around you. You can’t starve much more than this. This is the end of the road. Any more than this and there’s no coming back, at least not without medicine and medical equipment we don’t have access to. As it is, I already know of twelve people who will need medical attention and constant supervision to manage refeeding syndrome.”

Kuro’s expression darkens. “R-refeeding syndrome?”

Simon stands up and paces around the room, pinching the bridge of his nose. “It’s a medical condition linked to extreme fasting or starvation. It happens when someone who hasn’t had access to a sufficient amount of food for a prolonged amount of time.” He shakes his head. “It’s complicated. Long story short, if you feed someone who's been starving too quickly, they’ll die. Their bodies can’t take the sudden intake of food. It’s worse for children and the elderly.”

“How have I never heard of this?” Kuro replies, wide-eyed.

Simon shakes his head. “Not many doctors around here, I’m guessing. Look. The point is, your people need food. Now. Not two days from now, not a week from now, not even a day from now. They require food. Now.”

“Simon, h-have you?” Kuro’s gaze turns towards the old soldier.

“More times than I’d like,” he replied with a grimace before spitting into his empty cup.

Kuro stares at the now empty flask, seemingly praying for it to spontaneously refill itself, before quietly speaking, “H-How will you do it?”

Simon closed his eyes and sighed softly. “I’ll need to butcher a horse first for tonight. Anything else will take too long. After that’s taken care of, boiled meat is compressed into blocks, cut into strips and smoked. The world’s worst jerky, basically. Ideally, it’d be a 4 – 1 meat ratio, but unfortunately, that’s not an option. More than likely, the final ratio will be between 3-2 and 1-1. I’ll have to get creative for some of the vitamin differences. Scurvy is already rampant here, so I’ll likely have to get creative. Liver harvesting, plasma filtration, the works.”

The elder gulped loudly before breathing in deeply to steel himself. “What will you need, exactly?”

“Buckets and bowls. The large kettle from the mess hall. Access to the blacksmith for a few hours. I need to make something capable of grinding down the meat into a paste to better mix it, and something to compress it back into a solid block. I’ll also need some easily digestible fibers to act as a binder to keep the mix together while compressing it into blocks during the boiling process. After that, it’s a rather simple but grotesque affair. Simply shave off strips of meat before hanging them up to smoke-dry.”

Simon noticed the elder’s tired face turning a light shade of green, but chose not to mention it. Not like I can blame him. “The hard part will be making a centrifuge. Words cannot express how stupid of an idea what I’m going to do is. Normally, it’s not even possible and to be honest, I’m uncertain if it even is possible, but they’ll die if I don’t at least try something unless you happen to have a large supply of fruits hidden away.”

The two sat across from each other for a quiet moment before Kuro rediscovered the courage to speak. “I-I’ll see that you have what you need. Please. Please. Don’t tell the other villagers what you are up to. I’ll tell them myself when the time is right, but for now, please keep it to yourself.”

Simon nodded quietly. “Any chance at an extra set of hands?”

The beastmen head shook solemnly before replying, “I’ll ask Kurtin once he’s back. He’s trustworthy, despite not originally being from the village.”

Simon nodded quietly again before sitting back down on the floor. “Anyway, let’s move on. I’ve got a method that might deter the bandits. It’s unsightly, but it’s quite effective. Moreover, it doesn’t fall under the category of fortification structures, so none of the kingdom’s restrictions will be impeded. Not that it really matters at this point.”

Kuro’s eyes widened slightly at the prospect. “Oh? What do you have in mind?” A sad smile flashed briefly across Simon’s face before he could respond. Something about that smile sent shivers down the man’s spine, his tail standing on end. “N-Never mind. I get a strange feeling I don’t want to know. Anyway, is there anything else?”

“There is, more specifically, this.” Simon reached into a sealed package at his waist and pulled out a small rotten potato.

Kuro and Simon’s noses inadvertently curled upwards at the stench permeating from the potato. “Alright, I get it. You want to talk about the plague, then? Put that damnable thing away now, unless you intend to see me naked again,” Kuro waved one of his hands in front of his face frantically while pinching his nose with the other.

“Not yet. Do you know the name of the disease afflicting this potato?”

Kuro stopped fanning his face for a moment, but kept one hand pinching his nose closed. “No, I don’t. Does it even have a name? As far as I’m aware, it’s only ever been referred to as the plague.”

Simon nodded his head before continuing, “It does, Phytophthora infestans, or, more commonly, potato blight. Where I’m from, it’s ravaged entire countries in the past and nearly wiped out entire populations.”

Kuro released his nose before inching his face closer to the potato. “You know what it is? Does that mean you know how to cure it?” his eyes looking upwards towards Simon with newfound hope.

“Maybe. Nothing’s certain, but I’ll do what I can.”

Kuro nods his head several times. “Just let me know whatever you need, and I’ll see to it that you get it.”

A sad smile appears on Simon’s face, once again causing Kuro’s tail and ears to stand on end.

“In that case, gather all the villagers in the mess hall four days from now. I’ve… got to prepare a few things.”

Simon quickly stands up and exits the building, headed towards a closed-off cellar. The same sad smile still present across his face.